Author Description

It had taken three and a half decades, but the Detroit Tigers were finally crowned the best team in baseball in 1935. Coming on the heels of their hugely disappointing loss in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals the year before, the Tigers emerged victorious in a thrilling six-game October showdown against a talented Chicago Cubs team. It was Detroit's first World Series championship. For a city suffering from the Great Depression, it couldn't have come at a better time. The team was led by player-manager Mickey Cochrane, and featured an offense fueled by Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, and Goose Goslin (dubber the "G-Men"). On the mound were Lynwood Thomas "Schoolboy" Rowe, Tommy Bridges, Elden Auker, and General Crowder. With 93 victories that summer, the Tigers outpaced the New York Yankees by three games, taking their fifth American League title in club history. To commemorate the 80th anniversary of this great team, the Society for American Baseball Research is proud to present the 1935 Detroit Tigers in all their glory. With contributions from over 35 members of the SABR BioProject, this book is a delightful account of one of the most significant teams in sports history. "Navin Field was packed, and when we won Detroit really came alive. As a team we were like a bunch of brothers. Hank, Charlie, Billy, Goose, Schoolboy, Tommy...all of them. I think of those guys often. It was a wonderful time of my life." -Elden Auker Contents: Introduction by Scott Ferkovich Sleeping Giant: Detroit in the 1930s by Gary Gillette The Babe’s Loss Was Detroit’s Gain: The Cochrane Trade by John Milner The 1935 Season in Review by Greg Erion THE OWNER: Frank Navin by Marc Okkonen & David Jones THE PLAYERS Elden Auker by Robert H. Schaefer